Texas Tech basketball deserves more love from Lubbock

There is a famous philosophical question that asks, If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound? The same can be asked of Texas Tech basketball. If a team wins 8 games in an arena and no one is there to see it, did it actually happen?

When it comes to the 2015-16 Texas Tech men’s basketball program, the answer is yes.

The team is off to a 10-1 start this year including a perfect 8-0 home record. Head coach Tubby Simth’s squad is averaging almost 78 points per game and has won by an average of 16 points per game.

Yet virtually no one has been showing up at the United Supermarkets Arena to watch the most exciting basketball team Texas Tech has fielded in recent memory. The average attendance for the home games of the 10-1 Red Raiders is a measly 4,781 people.

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That is roughly a quarter of what the arena’s capacity is. That figure is pathetic for a college town of almost a quarter of a million people.

There is simply no reason Texas Tech basketball should have more support than it is receiving from the community. Sure, Lubbock is a football town and the first part of basketball season coincides with the end of football season but there is room on the calendar and in the wallet for both.

Many fans say they don’t like the rising prices of Texas Tech football tickets but Texas Tech basketball season tickets start as low as $199. For 17 games, that is an average of $11.70 per game or less than what it takes for two people to eat at Whataburger. Single game tickets are even more affordable yet.

Still, the city of Lubbock and the Texas Tech students are not showing up.

Make all the excuses you want. None of them fly.

Sure, this program has been terrible for years, but the 2015 Texas Tech basketball team is far more talented and athletic than the teams of years past. The Red Raiders’ 10-1 record has positioned the team to earn a postseason birth with a decent conference showing.

Others have felt alienated or disenchanted by the poor cast of characters the university has brought in to coach the team. While many disapproved of Bob Knigh and his surely demeanor, his results kept the criticisms to a minimum. But with the failures of Pat Knight and Billy Gillespie the program saw four head coaches in four straight seasons (Pat Kinght – 2010, Gillespie – 2011, Chris Walker – 2012 – interim head coach following Gillespie’s resignation, and Tubby Smith – 2013).

The face of any college program is always the head coach and when that face is in constant flux, the program stands to lose its connection with the community. But since 2013 Texas Tech basketball has been led by a hall of fame coach in Tubby Smith who by all accounts is an even better human being than he is a coach.

Furthermore, Smith is doing more to bring people back to the United Supermarkets Arena than anyone could ever ask.

In January of 2014, Smith showed up at the Student Union on campus and bought lunch for what was reported to be over 100 students in an attempt to rally support among the Texas Tech student body. The plan worked as that night Texas Tech upset No. 12 Baylor, the first Texas Tech victory over a ranked team since 2009.

Prior to last season, Smith even participated in a stunt that was way outside his normal persona, and it could have killed him. As part of Texas Tech’s

Midnight Madness

event to celebrate to beginning of the basketball season Smith, dressed as the 1970’s movie character “Shaft”, rode into the arena on a motorcycle. But when he got near the end of the court, the 63-year-old tried to turn to motorcycle and rolled it onto his side.

Fortunately, Smith came away unscathed. He even had the awareness to ask about whether the newly refinished basketball court had been scratched.

The point is that Smith has done anything and everything he can to bring the people of Lubbock to the arena in support of the young men he coaches. Now, that Smith has his first recruiting class in its second year of college play the Red Raiders are ready to make a move up the Big 12 hierarchy.

But that will not happen if only 4,000 people show up every night.

People love to complain while often doing nothing to help solve the problem. While fans can’t recruit, coach or make free throws they can at least show up at the games to give Texas Tech an actual home court advantage.

Even if Tech loses most of its home games, strong attendance would boost the revenue generated by the second-highest revenue generating athletic program on campus. I’m sure an athletic program over $100 million in debt would love the financial backing of its community.

Today, Texas Tech hosts the Texas Longhorns. Football season is over and winter storm Goliath has moved on so there is no reason for fans not to show up to support the Texas Tech basketball team. The students are still on winter break and will be when Tech hosts Kansas next Saturday so it is up to the citizens of west Texas to bring energy to these crucial and high-profile games.

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If the community of Lubbock wants Texas Tech to have a good basketball program then it can’t sit around and wait for the team return to the NCAA tournament before they decide to show back up. If they do, the program might not ever make any noise in the basketball world again.

Just like that tree in the forest that no one heard when it fell.

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